IBM and ZSE Create Virtual Green Highway for Electric Vehicles

Engineerblogger
April 11, 2012

Credit: IBM

IBM announced it has teamed with Západoslovenská energetika(ZSE), the largest distributor and supplier of electricity in Slovakia, on a smart energy “feasibility” study that will help prepare the capital city Bratislava for electric vehicles (EVs).

Using e-mobility technology, the study will help identify the possibilities of connecting two neighboring metropolitan areas – Bratislava, Slovakia and Vienna, Austria with a "green" highway. This highway will interconnect the two cities with a network of public charging stations for electric vehicles.

This study is part of a larger pilot project - VIBRATe' (VIenna BRATislava E-mobility), a first of its kind in Central Europe, with a goal to reduce emissions with a smarter, energy efficient transportation system. Currently, the average combustion engine produces about 45 kg of CO2 per year during the route from Vienna to Bratislava.

"The aim of the feasibility study is to identify new opportunities around e-mobility in Bratislava and maximize the market potential, in an effort to reduce emissions," said ZSE. "By analyzing the capacity needed from the distribution network for various types of vehicle charging / recharging, Bratislava can not only implement an optimal power grid, but also address the charging concerns shared by its citizens."

IBM Slovakia is teaming with ZSE to provide insights into various implementation scenarios and infrastructure options for charging. Together, the companies are investigating charging station locations for normal and rapid charging across the borders, as well as analyzing networking availability. This insight will allow ZSE to strategically place charging stations in areas that are convenient for consumers, without straining the distribution system, an issue caused by unpredictable charging across territories.

"Rising fuel prices and energy consumption are two major issues facing many cities around the world, these factors coupled with aging roads and infrastructures, can affect city planning, local economy, and overall community satisfaction," said Guido Bartels, General Manager of IBM's Global Energy and Utilities Industry. "This mobility project with ZSE tackles all of these issues. It has the potential to introduce a modern, convenient and more intelligent way for consumers to commute, which in turn may encourage more to make the shift to an electric vehicle, while reducing stress on the energy grid."

ZSE is spearheading this project to identify alternative energy resources, drive consumer engagement and ensure the reliable distribution of electricity. Once implemented, the solution will help consumers save energy and control usage costs, while helping utilities manage power load on the energy grid during peak charging times with better insight into consumption. Additionally, energy suppliers will have the ability to store energy for use when natural sources of energy are not available.

This e-mobility study along with other projects such as Edison, EcoGrid EU and EKZ in Switzerland, demonstrates the ongoing commitment towards developing a reliable energy and transport infrastructure that supports the adoption of electric vehicles.

Source: IBM

Battery 500 Project: 800 km range for electrovehicles

Engineerblogger
March 5, 2012

IBM's Battery 500 project, led by scientists at IBM Research – Almaden in California, is an interdisciplinary consortium to develop a lithium–air battery that aims to increase the range of electrovehicles to 500 miles (approximately 800 km). This is more than five times the range of today's batteries, which average some 150 km per charge. If the project is successful, battery-powered vehicles could finally become a practical reality and thus overcome the main obstacle to becoming generally accepted and widespread: In a recent survey conducted by IBM, 64% of consumers said that the limited range was their strongest objection to driving electrovehicles.

Changing from gasoline to electricity as the main energy source for vehicles could be one of the most significant technological turning points in the history of our modern industrial society. However, progress has been slow in developing high-performance batteries. High manufacturing costs are another major factor that has limited the widespread acceptance and large-scale development of electrovehicles. Consumers' greatest fear is being stranded somewhere with an empty battery, and this fear is justified, as the range of most current battery-operated vehicles is only some 150 km. It appears unlikely that a realistic range can be achieved with today's battery technology, which must also have an acceptable weight and be available at reasonable prices.

Rechargeable lithium–ion storage batteries like the ones used in cell phones or notebook computers offer only a fraction of the energy density—the amount of energy that can be stored per mass unit or volume unit—achieved by fossil fuels such as gasoline or diesel. Therefore this battery technology for electrovehicles is only of interest today for short distances or in hybrid-engine vehicles. If this situation is to be fundamentally changed, new types of batteries with significantly higher energy densities must replace today's lithium–ion batteries. IBM, world patent leader and active for decades in fundamental research, has launched a new project dubbed Battery 500 to tackle this problem. For this new project, IBM is leveraging its recent progress in the fields of materials science, nanotechnology, chemistry and supercomputing.

An interdisciplinary team of scientists at IBM Research – Almaden in California and IBM Research – Zurich, together with leading universities, corporations and research institutes has been exploring a so-called lithium–air battery since mid-2009. The aim of this project is to develop a battery whose energy density is up to ten times higher than that of today's rechargeable lithium–ion batteries, thus providing electrovehicles with a range of up to 500 miles or 800 km. "With our lithium–air battery technology we hope to achieve a quantum leap that could be a breakthrough in electromobility," explains Dr. Winfried Wilcke, initiator and head of the Battery 500 project at IBM Research – Almaden. "This is yet another project of IBM's 'Smarter Planet' vision in which new mobility concepts play a vital role."

"Airy" bundle of energy

A major advantage of the lithium–air battery is that it takes oxygen from the atmosphere as its reacting agent. The oxygen is stored in light carbon nanostructures in the cathode, meaning that significantly more energy per kilogram battery weight can be stored than in today's batteries. A numerical example illustrates this advantage: a conventional lithium–ion battery with an energy content of 50 kilowatt hours (kWh) weighs about 500 kg. A range of 800 km would require an energy content of 150 kWh, which would mean a weight of 1.5 tons, which is clearly unrealistic for practical use in electrovehicles. In contrast, IBM scientists estimate that a 150 kWh lithium–air battery would weigh "only" about 150–300 kg.
The theoretically achievable specific energy of a lithium–air battery (without the weight of the ambient oxygen) is greater than 11 kWh per kilogram (kWh/kg). Scientists predict that, in practice, a lithium–air battery could achieve about one-tenth of the theoretical specific energy. Taking the relative efficiency of combustion motors and electromotors into account, the difference in "practical" energy densities between electromotors and gasoline or diesel-powered motors is actually very small because electromotors have a very high efficiency of 85%. The lithium–air technology thus exhibits the greatest potential of all battery types researched to date.

A battery that "breathes"

Like all batteries, the basic construction of a lithium–air battery consists of two electrodes, in this case a metal electrode of lithium (the anode) and an oxygen-permeable electrode of a light carbon structure (the cathode). When the battery is discharged, the lithium atoms of the anode lose electrons and proceed as lithium ions through an electrically conducting electrolyte to the cathode, where they react with oxygen from the atmosphere. The product of this reaction is then deposited in the cathode. When the battery is charged, it releases the oxygen collected while the vehicle was being driven (discharged) back into the atmosphere. Metaphorically speaking, the battery "inhales" oxygen while discharging and "exhales" it again while being recharged.
IBM scientists are focusing on so-called aprotic (non-watery) lithium–air batteries, which use organic liquids and lithium salts as electrolytes. Discharging the battery produces lithium peroxide (Li2O2)—but only when the right electrolytes are used—which is stored in the battery's cathode. During the charging process, the lithium peroxide breaks down into oxygen, which is released into the atmosphere, and lithium, which is stored in the battery's anode.

From simulations and experiments to success

The members of this project have already achieved major breakthroughs toward achieving their ambitious goal. For example, the functionality of this technology has been proved in principle on laboratory-scale models that unequivocally demonstrated the rechargeability of lithium–air batteries. The key to this first success was a combination of computer-based simulations and practical experiments. The team at the IBM Research – Zurich Laboratory performed so-called ab initio simulations to obtain new insights into the molecular-level processes that take place in lithium–air batteries. These highly complex simulations draw exclusively on basic laws of physics and physics models. In this way, interactions between atoms and molecules in a given system can be computed exactly. Performed on a petaflop IBM BlueGene/P supercomputer at Argonne National Laboratory, these simulations showed for the first time that the electrolytes used in conventional lithium–ion batteries do not work in lithium–air batteries, contrary to what was previously thought.

"Our simulations allowed us to demonstrate the processes that actually take place during discharge. The carbon-based electrolyte reacts in an undesirable manner with the lithium peroxide and decompose as a result. This effectively destroys the lithium–air battery," explains Dr. Alessandro Curioni, head of the Computational Sciences research group at IBM Research – Zurich.
Using a mass spectrometer developed specifically for the Battery 500 project, scientists were able to perform laboratory experiments that clearly confirm the electrolyte decomposition predicted by the simulations. "Simulations and experimental results have allowed us to identify stable electrolytes with which we were able to demonstrate the basic functionality of the charging and discharging processes," says project leader Wilcke. In addition, very high charge capacities have been demonstrated in the laboratory. A further fundamental result is the fact that, contrary to long-held assumptions, catalyzers are not kinetically necessary because the so-called overvoltage of the fundamental electrochemical reaction 2Li+ + O2 + 2- <=> Li2O2 is much smaller than originally thought. Nevertheless, the very low conductivity of lithium peroxide is a problem that is yet to be resolved.

Still a "Grand Challenge"

Several other veritable challenges remain for scientists to solve before lithium–air batteries can be implemented for practical purposes or fabricated industrially. It is therefore one of IBM Research's so-called "Grand Challenges"—ambitious and risky research projects with uncertain outcomes but very high potentials, such as the development of the WATSON supercomputer.
Currently, scientists are seeking to increase the energy density of the battery, which is still far too low for real-life electromobility. Another challenge is the charging process, which is currently too slow. But even assuming that this can be improved markedly, it will not be possible, say, to charge the battery quickly during one's coffee break. Scientists are currently aiming for the capability to charge the battery overnight, which, based on the considerable range, should be sufficient. To solve the problem posed by lithium's susceptibility to humidity, the IBM team is also developing novel nanomembranes, which will be required in order to protect the sensitive lithium anode from steam and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Additional challenges are the long-term stability of the components' materials and the improved ability to suppress undesirable secondary reactions.

Upon successful completion of the current research phase, the Battery 500 project could possibly be pursued with industrial partners to develop commercial models of the lithium–air battery in the timeframe of 2020 to 2030. Participants of the Battery 500 project include several other top-notch partners of German, Japanese and Korean corporations as well as additional American research institutions.


Source: IBM

Smallest-Ever Nanotube Transistors Outperform Silicon

Technology Review
Jan 26, 2012

Nano gate: A conceptual illustration shows a nanotube positioned between the source and drain of a transistor. Credit: IBM

The smallest carbon-nanotube transistor ever made, a nine-nanometer device, performs better than any other transistor has at this size.

For over a decade, researchers have promised that carbon nanotubes, with their superior electrical properties, would make for better transistors at ever-tinier sizes, but that claim hadn't been tested in the lab at these extremes. Researchers at IBM who made the nanotube transistors say this is the first experimental evidence that any material is a viable potential replacement for silicon at a size smaller than 10 nanometers.

"The results really highlight the value of nanotubes in the most sophisticated type of transistors," says John Rogers, professor of materials science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "They suggest, very clearly, that nanotubes have the potential for doing something truly competitive with, or complementary to, silicon."

The shrinkage of silicon transistors over the past several decades has reduced the cost of electronics and led to more processing power with less energy consumption. But the downsizing of silicon electronics might hit a roadblock at around 10 nanometers, says Aaron Franklin, a researcher at the IBM Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. "We are now reaching physical limits," he says. As transistors are made smaller, it gets more difficult to control how electrons move through the silicon channel to turn the transistor on and off. Faced with this unruly, power-draining behavior, Intel announced last year that it would switch to a new, three-dimensional transistor design for its 22-nanometer generation of chips. Other companies are working on so-called ultrathin body transistors. No matter how it's shaped, though, silicon is silicon, and dealing with it at extremely small sizes presents problems even in these new transistor designs.

Many materials have been hyped as a potential replacement for silicon, including carbon nanotubes. That material and others have shown promise in larger transistors, but until now, no one had demonstrated a carbon-nanotube transistor smaller than 10 nanometers. "If nanotubes can't go much further than silicon, then working on them is a waste of time," says Franklin. "We've made nanotube transistors at aggressively scaled dimensions, and shown they are tremendously better than the best silicon devices."

To test how the size of a nanotube transistor affected its performance, Franklin's group made multiple transistors of different sizes along a single nanotube. This enabled them to control for any variations that might occur from nanotube to nanotube. First, they had to lay down a very thin layer of insulating material for the nanotube to sit on. And they developed a two-step process for adding electrical gates to the nanotube without damaging it. These techniques are by no means ready for manufacturing, but they enabled the IBM group to make the first nanotube devices smaller than 10 nanometers to test in the lab. The work is described online in the journal Nano Letters.
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